Puppies, kittens too cute for pandemic
Another 2020 letdown: Macy’s display goes all video
“It does seem like things are getting worse. We can’t be with our families this holiday. Now this. I suppose we have to make new traditions.” Andrea Sowers of Pleasanton
For yet another thing loused up by the pandemic, consider the cute little kittens and puppies in the Macy’s window in downtown San Francisco.
They’ve all gone virtual — no live kittens and puppies this year, just endlessly looped videos of them. The change puts an end to a cheerful tradition that took place for 19 consecutive holiday seasons.
“I’m trying to be positive about this,” said Andrea Sowers of Pleasanton who, with her daughter, Lauren, watched a video clip of a brown kitten batting a red ball, then watched it twice more.
“It does seem like things are getting worse. We can’t be with our families this holiday. Now this. I suppose we have to make new traditions,” Sowers said.
“Everybody’s making videos this year,” said Lauren. “Kittens, too.”
It’s a matter of public safety, said Jennifer Scarlett, president of the San Francisco SPCA. Put a real kitten or puppy in the department store display window, as the SPCA has traditionally done, and a whole lot of folks will stand shoulder to shoulder, transfixed.
In 2020, such close quarters could be hazardous to your health.
“We were concerned about creating a crowd,” Scarlett said.
The allvirtual cuteness show kicked off on Tuesday at the corner of O’Farrell and Stockton streets. Behind the plate glass, three video monitors were playing short video clips of the animals. In one window, a brown kitten batted a red ball, very cutely, again and again. In the next window a terrier puppy rolled on its side, also very cutely, again and again.
And all the while on the loudspeaker, the voice of Louis Prima sang the same carol, the jazzy one about swinging Santa Claus. It was as close to Groundhog Day as November gets.
The idea, says the SPCA, is to
remind passersby how terrific an animal shelter pet can be. Last year, 250 shoppers adopted a pet after stopping to look at the window display, and the SPCA raised nearly $ 100,000. This year, it will probably be fewer animals and less money. That’s how 2020 has been, for everyone, not just for kittens.
Instead of drawing the kind of crowd it ordinarily would, the show on Tuesday drew a few onlookers.
Rosario Rodriguez paused long enough to see the video of the brown kitten twice. She said at least the video kitten was doing something. Last year, when the kittens were the real kind, Rodriguez said she had showed up to watch during their nap time.
“They were asleep then,” she said. “At least now they’re awake, even if they aren’t real.”
Jeannette Revel, of San Francisco, stopped by the window with her 97yearold mother, Carol.
“I love that they reinvented the idea, and they’re bringing joy the best they can,” Jeannette said. “Everybody’s working from home, even animals. But sure, I’m disappointed.”
Her mother, who has seen a lot of kittens in her day, said the pet windows of 2020 were OK with her.
“The animals don’t have to be real,” she said. “They’re cute the way they are.”
The SPCA is streaming kittens and puppies live on its website, www. sfspca. org/ adoptions/ livecams, if not in the department store windows. Those kittens and puppies are up for adoption.
The brown kitten in the Macy’s window video got adopted a few weeks ago, shortly after shooting the video with the red ball, so please don’t ask for that one, Scarlett said.
“We have other kittens,” she added. “They’re cute, too.”